Managing releases
In the
, a release is an application version with a specific set of components and their versions that can be deployed through the stages of a route. A release consists of the following items:
- Plan template that has stages with the assigned environments via route gates
- Requests that are deployed to the environments in the stages.
You can work with releases on the Releases tab of the
if you have appropriate permissions. Releases created using the
are displayed on the Plans tab of the BMC Release Process Management (RPM) Classic UI.
Before you begin
Before creating a release, ensure that the following entities are created for the release:
- application with components
- plan template
- request template with at least one step using the application component, and at least one version tag for each component in the application.
The release tag that you must specify when creating a release can be generated automatically using a release tag template or entered manually. When creating a request template, you can define request properties to be used when deploying a request.
For more information, see Managing-request-properties.
Creating a release
The release name is generated automatically and includes the name of an application and its version.
- On the Releases tab of the
, click New Release.
On the New Release page, from the Application list, select the required application.
From the Plan Template list, select the plan template for the release.
When you use a plan template that has stages with the assigned default request templates, a release is created with already generated requests at these stages, and you can start deploying the requests.
From the Request Template list, select the required request template.
- In the Release # box, type a version of the release.
If you created a release tag template for the application, then the Release # field is populated automatically. - In the Components section, select the necessary version for each component in the application.
- Click Create.
A new release is created in theand the corresponding plan for the release is created in the RPM Classic UI.
Deploying requests
After you create a release for the appropriate application, you can start adding deployments to the environments in the release stages.
When you add a deployment to the stage, a request is automatically created. If a request is deployed for the first time, it is created from the request template that you specified when you created the release. Requests in subsequent stages are created from the most recent complete request of the previous required stage. If there are no required stages or no complete requests in the release, the requests are created from the request template. The
supports multiple deployments within one stage: you can redeploy a request to the same environment or deploy a request to another environment in the same stage.
The first stage in the release always has the Ready status, which means that you can deploy a request in this stage at once regardless of its type (required or optional). After you successfully deployed the first request in the stage, the stage gets the Complete status, and the next stage or stages, if any, become available. If a plan template includes only optional stages, all of them will have the Ready status. If a plan template used in the release includes required stages, only after the required stage is Complete, the next required stage gets the Ready status.
To deploy a request
When you add deployment in the release, a request is generated automatically and its name includes the name of the release and the environment to which the request is deployed.
- Log in to the
.
- On the Releases tab, open the required release.
- Click Add deployment, and then do the following:
- In the Deploy to list, select the environment to which you want to deploy the request.
- (Optional) In the Schedule on box, in the calendar, do one of the following:
- Select the required date and time. In this case, a request is created in the Planned state with an activated automatic start.
Click Now. In this case, a request is created in the Started state.
- (Optional) To provide additional information to deploy a request, enter any appropriate data in the other boxes. These boxes represent request properties that can be defined when creating a request or request template on the RPM Classic UI.
Click OK.
Click Deploy.
- (Optional) To start a request manually, in the Deployment Log section, click the request name link, and then on the request details page, click Start.
Viewing request details
After a request is created, you can view its details by clicking the request link in the Deployment Log section. The following image shows the details for the REQID1039 request. When you click the request name link on the request details page, the request details are opened in the RPM Classic UI.
The following tabs provide detailed information about the request:
- Summary: Displays the following information about the request:
- Owner: Specifies a user who is responsible for the on-going tasks in the request.
- Requestor: Specifies a user who created or initiated the request.
- Application: Specifies an application associated with the request.
- Environment: Specifies environments associated with the request.
- Planned Start: Specifies the planned start date that you provided when adding a deployment. If you selected Now or you did not schedule a request, then the Planned Start shows Not specified.
- Components: Displays the components that are associated with the request.
- Properties: Displays the request properties. If a required request property does not have any value, you cannot start a request. You can edit values for the optional or required properties depending on your permissions either in the Classic UI or
. To add or edit a request property in Classic UI, see Managing-request-properties. To edit a property in
, click the value, update it, and save it.
You can change the status of a request by clicking the following buttons, which are available to users depending on the permissions:
- Plan: Click to change the state of the request to Planned. If a request is already in the Planned state, this button is disabled.
- Start: Click to start the request.
- Hold: Click to put the request on hold.
- Cancel: Click to cancel a request.
Problem: Click to indicate a request with some issues.
- Resolve: Click to indicate that the issues with the request are resolved. This button appears only for steps with the In Problem status.
- Reopen: Click to open the request again if needed. This button appears when all the steps in the request are completed and the request is marked as Complete.
The current request status is displayed at the top-right corner of the request details page under the stage name.
Exporting requests
Depending on your permissions, you can export and save a request on your local machine in the XML, PDF, and HTML formats using the
.
- On the Requester UI, open the required release, and then, on the release details page, in the Deployment Log section, click the request that you want to export.
- On the right side, click Export, and then select the required format:
- XML
- HTML
- Save the file.
Viewing and editing step details
By default, the following columns are displayed for a step:
- Step: Indicates the step number.
- Status: Indicates the current status of the step.
By default, steps move through a series of states. You can change the state of a step by using the Status list. You can also disable, enable, or reset the step in the request. A solid line on the left side of the multiple steps indicates that those steps will execute in parallel (as shown in the following image).
- Name: Indicates the step name.
- Estimated: Indicates the estimated time taken to execute a step.
- Assigned To: Indicates the user to which the step is assigned. For steps with automation, Assigned To is shown as Automatic.
- Elapsed: Indicates the time for which a step has been running since it started, as follows.
- Elapsed time appears in gray if the estimated time is not specified.
- Elapsed time appears in green if the estimated time is specified and step is still running or completes within the estimated time.
- Elapsed time appears in red if the estimated time is specified and step is still running or completed, but the elapsed time exceeds the estimated time.
You can click any step and the Edit step dialog box is displayed with the following details:
When you open a step, the following details are displayed:
- Name
- Type
- Component/Package
- Owner
- Version
From the
, you can change the name, component, owner, and version of the step. If the Type is selected as Component, you can also modify the component for a step, however, you cannot select the Type as Package and change the details for a package. If a step contains a package, you can only view the partial step details (the Content tab is not displayed) and cannot modify information in any of the tabs.
Changes made by using the
are syncronized and are displayed in the RPM Classic UI as well.
In the Edit step dialog box, click the following tabs to view/update the details for the selected step and then click Save to save the step.
(Click each item to expand it and see the description.)
General
In the General tab, you can modify any details for a step.
You schedule a step, select phase and a runtime phase, select work tasks or assign priority to a step. You can also add description for the step.
Automation
You can only view the automation steps added to the request. By default the input for an automation step is displayed. After the step is complete, you can select Output from the Display parameters list to view the automation step output.
Log&Note
The Log & Note tab displays any notes added to the step from the RPM Classic UI. For the automation steps, after the step is complete, the log file is displayed in the Log & Note tab. You can also view the complete automation log by clicking the View full automation run log link towards the end of the log file.
The following figure displays the link to view the complete automation log file.
Documentation
A list of documents attached to the step is displayed. Click the document link to download the file that matches your requirement. You cannot upload documents by using the Requester UI.
Properties
Properties for components are displayed. You can modify the properties for a step to match your requirement.
If a huge list is displayed, you can search for properties by using the Search Properties search box.
Server Properties
Server properties for the selected servers are displayed. You can modify the server properties to match your requirement.
If a huge list is displayed, you can search for server properties by using the Search Server Properties search box.
Customizing step details
To add or remove columns that show step details, click 
on the far right (highlighted in the image) on the request details page, select or clear the required columns, and then click Submit.
Searching for steps
The Search box enables you to search for a step by the Step Name and Assigned To columns. You can search for an individual step as well as for a step that is part of a procedure. If a step is part of the procedure, the procedure name and step name are listed in the results. Consider the following guidelines while searching for steps:
- Search is case insensitive.
- You can use special characters, such as @ and _ to search for a step.
- You do not need to provide complete step name or user name to which the step is assigned. You can search for steps by partial names.
- Search results are returned only for the current request.
You can now search for a step by using any of the columns. For example, you can search for steps that are In Progress by using the Status column.
Viewing procedures
You can view procedures that are assigned to a request in the
. For information about creating or editing procedures, see Managing-procedures.
If a procedure is a conditional procedure, you can hover on the procedure to see the execution condition and its type. The Conditional Procedure Execution icon changes depending on the conditional procedure applied to the step:
: Indicates that the applied conditional procedure matches the values for the current step or request or if the procedure is not conditional.
: Indicates that the applied conditional procedure does not match the values for the current step or request. You can see the reason for not matching the condition in the procedure tooltip.
The following image shows sample procedures in a request:
